Get in early for shares, Alinta cautions

Page Tools

ALINTA Infrastructure Holdings has been flooded with 65,000
registrations of interest in its $926 million float, triggering a
new warning to prospective investors to get applications for shares
in early.

An Alinta spokesman said the response indicated there was a good
chance the initial public offerring would close before the cut-off
on September 23.

The level of interest also seems likely to force allocations to
be cut, possibly below the minimum subscription of 1000 stapled
securities, which will cost $2 each upfront with the balance of
$1.20 due in late December next year.

AIH has been set up to house the former Duke Energy assets that
Alinta bought last year for $1.7 billion.

They include gas pipelines in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania
and power stations in Port Hedland and Mount Newman in WA,
Bairnsdale in Victoria and Glenbrook in New Zealand.

Of the total offer of 231.5 million securities, Alinta will keep
20 per cent, 60 per cent has been taken up by institutional
investors, and the remaining 20 per cent will be distributed
through the priority offer to existing shareholders, customers and
employees.

The spokesman said about 60,000, or two-thirds, of Alinta's
90,000 shareholders had registered by the cut-off a week ago for
the priority offer and most would have received prospectuses by
Friday.

About 5000 of Alinta's 500,000 customers also registered as well
as about 350 employees.

The prospectus forecasts a yield of 7.9 per cent for AIH next
year, rising to 8.9 per cent in 2007.

Alinta chief executive Bob Browning will speak to the Securities
Institute in Melbourne in two days.